Cabinet having reversibly mountable doors



March 4, 1969 R. c. SANDIN ETAL 3,430,386

CABINET HAVING REVERSIBLY MOUNTABLE DOORS Filed June 26, 1967 F \G.\ FiG.

INVENTORS RAYMOND C. SAND\N 8CHARLES Hv SCHMITT THEIR ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,430,386 CABINET HAVING }Z)%)EISIBLY MOUNTABLE R Raymond C. Sandin, Winnetka, Ill., and Charles H. Schmitt, Anchorage, Ky., assignors to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Filed June 26, 1967, Ser. No. 648,757 US. Cl. 49--382 4 Claims Int. Cl. E0511 7/02, 15/50 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Door mounting structure for reversibly mounting two vertically aligned doors on a cabinet. Upper and lower removably mounted hinge pins are disposed on the top and bottom of the cabinet adjacent a first side thereof. A center support bracket is disposed between the upper and lower doors; the bracket extends over the full width of the cabinet and has threaded openings adjacent both ends thereof. A single cylindrical shaft having an enlarged threaded center section is adapted to be removably disposed within either of the threaded openings in the center bracket. Upon such disposition, the top and bottom sections of the shaft extend into aligned sleeves provided in the upper and lower doors. The doors include pairs of upper and lower sleeves adjacent each side thereof so that the upper and lower hinge pins and the single shaft may be disposed adjacent either side wall of the cabinet, whereby the doors may be opened from either side. At least some of the pairs of sleeves are designed to receive threaded fastening means for securing a handle to the free side of a door.

Background of the invention It is the usual practice in mounting a door on a cabinet to provide hinges on one side so that the door may swing in a predetermined direction. It frequently occurs, however, that the swinging of the door about the opposite side is desirable. The present invention relates to means for reversibly mounting two vertically aligned doors on a cabinet, particularly a refrigerator cabinet.

A mounting arrangement wherein the doors of a refrigerator may be modified so that they open from the opposite side is desirable from the homemakers point of view, since, as is often the case when moving from one home to the next, the original right or left hand hinging of the doors is not suitable to the new location. A refrigerator manufactured in accordiance with my invention has increased usefulness in that the refrigerator is so designed that its doors can be conveniently mounted for opening from either the right or left side, at the convenience of the user.

Many manufacturers have been aware of this desire on the part of homemakers. Most attempts to design reversible door hanging mechanisms have been restricted to a single door refrigerator. These mechanisms have generally included complex mechanical linkages and safety devices, so designed that the door could be opened about either side by merely pulling on one or the other of two door handles. Examples of such arrangements heretofore suggested are found in United States Patents Nos. 2,698,- 457; 2,261,146; 2,745,132 and 2,796,628.

While some of these arrangements have been mechanically satisfactory, none of these previous structures have met with any great commercial success. The lack of success is attributable, at least in part, to the high cost of providing the complex mechanisms within a refrigerator door. Also, either because of the positioning of the refrigerator relative to its environment, or the preference of the user, the user will almost invariably open the door from one side and has no interest in reversing the opening movement of the door until a change in environment makes it necessary.

Summary of the invention A primary object of the present invention is to provide simple and economical means for mounting two vertically aligned doors on a cabinet, which means may easily be relocated to the opposite side of the cabinet, whereby the doors may be opened from the opposite side of the cabinet at the desire of the user, or to suit the requirement of the environment.

It is another object of the invention to provide simple and low cost means for reversibly mounting two vertically aligned doors on a refrigerator cabinet in a manner that will permit the manufactuer to supply a single type of cabinet and doors to effect either right or left hand operation, thereby reducing the inventories of the manufacturer and its distributors.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided an arrangement for reversibly mounting upper and lower vertically aligned doors on a cabinet. The door mounting arrangement includes an upper pivot means in cluding a pivot pin removably mountable on the cabinet adjacent either the first or second opposite sides thereof. The upper pivot pin, when mounted on the cabinet, is adapted to cooperatively engage either one of two sleeves in the top of the upper door adjacent opposite sides thereof to thereby provide an upper pivot point for the upper door. The lower pivot pin is provided that is also removably mounted on the cabinet substantially adjacent either the first or second opposite sides thereof, and in vertical alignment wit-h the upper pivot means. This lower pivot pin, when mounted on the cabinet, is also adapted to be cooperatively received in one of two sleeves in the lower door adjacent either side thereof and thereby provide a lower pivot point for the lower door. An intermediate pivot means is removably carried by the cabinet between the upper and lower doors. The intermediate pivot means is mountable substantially adjacent either the first or second opposite sides of the cabinet, and is adapted to be in vertical alignment with the upper and lower pivot means. The intermediate pivot means includes an upper pivot pin adapted to cooperatively engage one or the other of two sleeve in the bottom of the upper door, and a lower pivot pin adapted to cooperatively engage similar sleeves in the top of the lower door, the intermediate pivot means thereby concurrently providing a top pivot for the lower door and a bottom pivot for the upper door. When the upper pivot means, lower pivot means and intermediate pivot means are mounted adjacent the same side of the cabinet, they provide vertically aligned axes upon which the upper and lower doors are adapted to rotate.

At least some of the pin receiving sleeves preferably also include means, which when the sleeves are not used as part of the hinge means, provide means whereby a handle can be conveniently secured to the free edge of the door.

Brief description of the drawing The distinguishing features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a presently preferred embodiment thereof, read in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a view in perspective of a cabinet incorporating the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged cross sectional view taken along the line 22 of FIGURE 1 and illustrates the mounting arrangement when the doors are pivotable at the left side of the cabinet;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the same cabinet along line 3-3 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged view of the center portion of the lower cabinet door illustrating means for mounting a preferred handle thereon; and

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 55 of FIGURE 4.

Description of the preferred embodiment Referring now to the drawing, there is shown a refrigerator cabinet comprising an outer shell 1 of sheet metal and inner liners 2 and 3 spaced from the shell 1 and spaced from one another by a partition 4. These liners 2 and 3 provide within the cabinet upper and lower storage compartments 5 and 6. The access openings to these compartments, defined generally by the inturned flanges 7 on the outer shell and by the metal front portion 8 of the partition 4, are respectively closed by two vertically aligned doors 9 and 10 overlapping the adjacent portions of the flanges 7 and the front portion 8 of the partition. In accordance with the usual practice, the spaces between the shell and liners and between the two liners within the area of the partition 4 are filled with suitable heat insulating material.

Each of the doors 9 and 10 is conventionally formed as shown in FIGURE 2, with an outer wall of sheet metal generally indicated by the numeral 11 and an inner wall 12 preferably formed of an insulating material such as a plastic sheet material. Each door includes rearwardly extending flanges 14 on each of the outer walls forming the edges of the doors and terminating in re-entrant flange portions 15 to which the inner walls 12 are secured by any suitable means. The space between the two walls are filled with insulating material.

Also in accordance with the usual practice, both of the doors are provided with suitable gasket members adapted to engage the front portions of the cabinet surrounding the respective access openings and these gaskets preferably include a magnetic material (not shown) for holding the doors in their closed positions.

The doors and the means for pivotally supporting the doors on the face of the cabinet are so designed that the doors may be mounted on the cabinet for pivotal movement about a vertical axis adjacent either the right or the left hand edges of the doors. To this end, the upper and lower flanges 14 on both of the doors are Provided with vertically aligned openings adjacent each corner of the doors. These aligned openings adjacent the left edge of the two doors are illustrated in FIGURE 2 of the drawing as including an opening 16 in the top edge of the upper door and opening 17 in the lower edge of the upper door, an opening 18 in the upper edge of the lower door and an opening 19 in the lower edge of the lower door. Similar aligned openings indicated by the same reference numerals are provided, as shown in FIGURE 3, adjacent the right hand edge of each of the doors. Rigidly fixed to the inner side of the flange 14 and in alignment with each of the openings 16, 17, 18 and 19 are sleeves 20 and 21. The sleeves 20 provided in the upper door 9 terminate in internally threaded end portions 22 while the sleeves 21 in the lower door terminate in closed hemispherical surfaces.

The sleeves 20 and 21 are designed to receive hinge pins forming part of a hinge means for pivotally securing the doors 9 and 10 to the face of the cabinet. The top hinge 23 includes a bracket 24 having one nd secured to the top of the cabinet by means of screws 25 driven into openings 28 provided adjacent opposite side edges of the cabinet in substantial alignment with the openings 16 in the top flange portion of the door 9. The hinge 23 also includes a pin portion 29 rigidly secured to the flange 24 and adapted to be pivotally received in the sleeve 20 below the opening 16.

The lower edge of the lower door 10 is pivotally supported on the face of the cabinet by means of an L-shaped hinge structure 30 having a vertical leg secured or fastened to the face of the cabinet below the lower door by screws driven into openings 31 and a horizontal leg provided with an upwardly extending pin 32 adapted to extend through the opening 19 and be pivotally received in the sleeve 21 associated with that opening.

To complete the door mounting structure, there is provided an intermediate mounting means for pivotally supporting the lower edge of the upper door and the upper edge of the lower door which means includes a substantially L-shaped bracket 35 extending substantially the full width of the cabinet and secured to the forward portion 8 of the partition 4 between the two doors. This bracket 35 includes a horizontal leg 36 including threaded openings 37 adjacent each end thereof and in alignment with the pins 29 and 32 forming parts of the upper and lower hinge means.

To provide both a bottom hinge pin for the upper door 9 and a top hinge pin for the lower door 10, there is provided a pin element 39 having an enlarged threaded center portion 40 adapted to be threaded into one or the other of the openings 37 and upper and lower pin sections 41 and 42 adapted to extend respectively through the openings 17 and 18 and into the respective sleeves 20 and 21 associated with these openings. Thus the pin portions of the upper and lower hinges 23 and 30 and the element 39 are in vertical alignment thereby providing vertically aligned axes for the upper and lower doors 9 and 10.

As the cabinet also includes means for mounting the hinges 23 and 30 and the element 39 adjacent the right side of the cabinet, means are provided for either manufacturing right and left hand door opening cabinets in the factory or for quickly converting a cabinet opening along one vertical edge to a cabinet in which the door openings are along the opposite vertical edge.

Also in accordance with the present invention, means are provided for mounting the door handles in either of two positions whereby these handles will be at or adjacent the free or unhinged edges of the doors.

To this end, the upper door 9 is provided with a vertically extending handle 44 including upper and lower horizontally extending portions 45 adapted to overlap the upper and lower edges of the door. These portions 45 are secured to the door by means of screws 46 having a shank portion 47 of about the same diameter as one of the pins 29 and a threaded end portion 47 adapted to be threadably received in the threaded sections 22 of the sleeves 20. Thus the openings 16 and 17 in a given door mounting arrangement which are not used to receive the pivot pins 29 are employed for fastening the handle 44 to the door.

If desired the lower door 10 may be provided with a handle and handle mounting means similar to that shown in connection with the upper door 9. Alternatively, there may be employed a reversible horizontal door handle of the type shown in FIGURES 1, 4 and 5 of the drawing. When the door 10 is pivotally supported about its left edge, this handle 50 is positioned in its full line position as shown in FIGURE 1 with its outer end 52 extending about the right edge of the door and suitably secured to the adjacent portion of the flange 15. The other end of the handle, as shown in FIGURES 4 and 5 of the drawing, includes a V-shaped notch 53 adapted to be received on a bolt 54 threaded through the face of the cabinet and held in position by a friction spring 57. For appearance purposes, this bolt may also support an appearance cm blem 55 overlying the end of the handle 50 whereby tightening of the bolt 54 clamps the end of the handle between the appearance emblem 55 and the face of the cabinet.

It will be obvious of course that if the door is mounted for pivotal movement about the right hand edge, the position of the handle 50 will be reversed to its dotted line position in FIGURE 1 with the inner end thereof supported by the bolt 54 and the outer end 52 overlying the left vertical edge of the door.

By using a handle such as the handle 50 mounted horizontally on the door 10, the sleeves 21 provided in the lower door may be closed as illustrated. However, if a handle such as the handle 44 is employed on the lower door 10, the sleeves provided in this door should be of a construction similar to the sleeves of the upper door.

Alternatively, the handle 50 may be a full width handle, that is, one extending the full width of the door so that it permits the user to open the door from the appropriate side without changing the location thereof.

It will be observed from the foregoing that there has been provided a simple arrangement for reversibly mounting two vertically aligned doors on the cabinet. The arrangement incorporates economically produced structure and permits the manufacturer of cabinets or refrigerators to provide two door reversibly hinged cabinets at a minimum expense since a single style cabinet and doors may be employed for both right and left door Openings thereby reducing inventory and production scheduling problems.

A particular advantage of the present invention is the ease with which a cabinet having doors hinged at one side can be converted in the home to a cabinet having doors hinged at the opposite side. The switching of the hinge supports on a small door such as the upper door 9 of the illustrated cabinet is not particularly difficult since a small door is relatively light in weight and can be handled easily by one man. However, large doors, such as the lower door 10, are ordinarily too heavy for one man to hold the door in its proper sealing position relative to the cabinet during removal of one set of hinges and the transfer thereof to the opposite side of the door.

The reversal of the hinge supports for a cabinet of the type covered by the present invention can be quickly and easily accomplished by the use of an additional hinge 30. Using an additional hinge 30, the sequence of operations involved in converting a cabinet having, for example, hinge means at the left hand side of the cabinet to a cabinet having the hinge means at the right hand side comprises first the removal of the upper hinge 23 pivotally supporting the upper door 9 and the removal of that door. The extra hinge 30 is then installed at the lower right hand corner of the cabinet and adjusted in the usual manner to position the corner of the door 10 relative to the face of the cabinet. At this stage, the door 10 is supported by both the right and left lower hinges. The hinge element 39 is then unscrewed from the left side of the bracket 36 and transferred to the right side for engagement of the pin section 42 thereof with the cooperating sleeve 21 in the upper right hand corner of the door 10. As this step completes the pivotal supporting of the door along its right hand edge, the lower left hinge can then be removed and the position of the door handle 50 reversed as described hereinbefore. Before remounting the upper door 9, the handle 44 is transferred to the left side of door 9. Door 9 is then positioned on the upper end of element 39 in its new position and upper hinge 23 secured to the right hand surface of the cabinet. Thus the conversion of the cabinet from one having the doors opening along one side to one having doors opening along the other side is quickly and easily accomplished merely by the use of an extra hinge for supporting the lower edge of the heavier lower door.

While there has been described what at present is considered to be the preferred embodiment of the invention,

it will be understood that various modifications may be made therein.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An arrangement for reversibly mounting upper and lower vertically aligned doors on a cabinet, comprising:

(a) upper pivot means removably mountable on said cabinet substantially adjacent either a first or second opposite side thereof; said upper pivot means, when mounted on said cabinet, being adapted to cooperat-ively engage the top edge of said upper door adjacent either side thereof, thereby providing an upper pivot surface for said upper door;

(b) lower pivot means removably mountable on said cabinet substantially adjacent either said first or second opposite side of said cabinet in vertical alignment with said upper pivot means, said lower pivot means, when mounted on said cabinet, being adapted to cooperatively engage the bottom edge of said lower door adjacent either side thereof, thereby providing a lower pivot surface for said lower door; and

(c) intermediate pivot means removably carried by said cabinet between said upper and lower doors, said intermediate pivot means being mountable adjacent either said first or second opposite sides of said cabinet, in vertical alignment with said upper and lower pivot means,

(d) said intermediate pivot means including an upper pivot section adapted to cooperatively engage the bottom edge of said upper door, and a lower pivot section adapted to cooperatively engage the top edge of said lower door; said intermediate pivot means thereby concurrently providing an upper pivot surface for said lower door and a lower pivot surface for said upper door;

(e) whereby upon said upper pivot means; said lower pivot means and said intermediate pivot means being mounted adjacent the same side of said cabinet, said upper, lower, and intermediate pivot means provide vertically aligned axes upon which said upper and lower doors are adapted to rotate,

(f) mounting means for mounting said intermediate pivot means on said cabinet, said mounting means providing first and second threaded openings substantially adjacent said first and second sides of said cabinet, respectively; said intermediate pivot means comprising a single cylindrical shaft having an enlarged threaded center section, said shaft being adapted to be removably disposed within either said first or said second threaded opening, whereupon by positioning said threaded shaft in either of said openings the section of said shaft disposed above said mounting means provides said lower pivot surface for said upper door and the section of said shaft disposed below said mounting means provides said upper pivot surface for said lower door.

2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said upper and lower doors each include vertically aligned sleeves disposed substantially adjacent each corner thereof, said sleeves being adapted to cooperatively receive said upper, lower, or intermediate pivot means to thereby mount said upper and lower doors on said cabinet, said lower pivot means comprises an inverted, substantially L- shaped bracket, the horizontal leg of said bracket having an upwardly extending pivot pin rigidly aflixed thereto, said pivot pin being adapted to cooperatively engage either of the sleeves disposed adjacent the bottom corners of said lower door and said upper pivot means comprises a bracket adapted to be removably afiixed to said cabinet, said bracket having a section overhanging the front of said cabinet, said section having a downwardly depending pivot pin affixed thereto, said pivot pin being adapted to cooperatively engage either of said sleeves disposed adjacent the top corners of said upper door.

7 8 3. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said References Cited mounting means comprises a bracket extending over the full width of said cabinet, said bracket having a hori- UNITED STATES PATENTS zontally disposed leg disposed inter-mediate said upper 852,770 5/1907 Campbell 312109 and lower doors, said leg having said first and second 974,750 11/1910 clen'flont 49'193 XR threaded openings therethrough substantially adjacent 0 3,378,954 4/1968 Sandln 49" 382 said first and second sides of said cabinet, respectively. KENNETH DOWNEY, primary 4. The combination of claim 2 in which the sleeves on at least one of said doors include means for mounting a handle on said door. 10 49-193, 402; 312-109 

